Greece’s Aegean Airlines will expand its operation in former Yugoslav markets this coming summer with the resumption of flights suspended in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and the launch of three new routes. However, it will still maintain fewer frequencies to the region than it did prior to the global health emergency. The carrier will restore operations between Athens and Zagreb this summer with seasonal flights to commence on June 15. They will operate twice per week, each Wednesday and Saturday, with a mix of Airbus A320 and A320neo aircraft. The service is scheduled to last until October 8. Overall, the airline will operate 34 flights each way between the two cities this year. It will compete against Croatia Airlines, which runs seasonal operations via Dubrovnik.
Following a two-year hiatus, the Greek carrier will return to the Montenegrin market this summer. Aegean will restore two weekly flights between Athens and Podgorica on May 11, with the service to be maintained twice per week, each Wednesday and Sunday, until the end of the 2022 summer season on October 26. Flights will be operated by Aegean’s regional subsidiary Olympic Air. The carrier will utilise its new 72-seat ATR72 aircraft which will represent a slight capacity decrease on the previously used Dash 8s. Overall, a total of 49 flights are planned between the two cities for the duration of the coming summer season.
Aegean Airlines will also introduce three new seasonal routes. The carrier will launch two weekly flights from both Heraklion and Rhodes to the Serbian capital. Services will commence on June 2 and June 3 respectively. Operations from Heraklion will run each Tuesday and Thursday, while the Rhodes service will be maintained on Mondays and Fridays. The airline will deploy its 206-seat A321 aircraft on both routes. Flights will operate until September 29. Overall, Aegean has put 7.035 seats on sale each way between Heraklion and Belgrade and a further 6.834 each way between Rhodes and the Serbian capital. Tickets are on sale through the airline’s website. The carrier had previously only operated charter flights from the Greek islands to Belgrade, without the possibility of booking a ticket directly with the airline. It will face direct competition from Wizz Air, which will resume its seasonal flights between Belgrade and Heraklion on June 16 with a two weekly rotation. Furthermore, Air Serbia operates a significant number of charter flights in cooperation with tour operators to both island airports. Aegean’s flights between Athens and Belgrade will run four times per week with the A320 and A320neos.
The Greek carrier will also introduce new operations between Thessaloniki and Dubrovnik. The summer flights will be maintained three times per week from June 1 until the end of the season, although two of the three weekly services will be concluded at the end of September. The flights are scheduled to operate with the ATR72 turboprops. It will complement the airline’s existing seasonal rotations from Athens, which will run up to four times per week during the summer with the A320 and A320neo jets. The carrier has not scheduled any flights to Split this year, which were maintained up until the Covid-19 pandemic. Elsewhere in the former Yugoslavia, Aegean will switch equipment on its Skopje route to the ATR72s, which will be maintained twice per week.
Why no Split?
ReplyDeleteThey used to have a lot of frequencies on that route :(
DeleteList of terminated destination by A3 in our region is getting long: Split, Zadar, Ljubljana, Sarajevo...
DeleteVolotea with which Aegean has extensive cooperation will cover part of this market.
DeleteBut Volotea does not fly from Greece to Split.
DeleteZAD wad cancelled after just one season, SPU was added the following year.
Delete@ Anon 9.20 they also used to fly Maribor charters.
DeleteOne of the best airlines in Europe in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteWithout a doubt
Deletethe fares they have to some ex-Yu destinations are extremely high.
DeleteTheir fares from BEG are quite good. They are usually almost always cheaper than Air Serbia to Athens by a couple of euros, and when they started sales for Heraklion and Rhodes, their prices to Heraklion were competitive with Wizz Air. Don't know if that's still the case now though.
DeleteDon't forget that they have better prices and a much better product. JU is basically an LCC while Aegean offers you a sandwich, something sweet and drinks.
DeleteIt's impressive how they managed to fill A320 in winter in Belgrade. I expected some flights to be switched to Q400
DeleteTheir Q400s are leaving the fleet and are being replaced by new ATRs.
DeleteThey are slower than the Q400 so I wouldn't want to be stuck in one for a 2-2.5 hour flight. it is good that they are keeping the A320s year round.
They have been retiring those Q400s for ages now yet they are still sticking around. I don't think they will retire them just yet because they need them for destinations that are not close and that just can't handle the A320.
DeleteWow not a single route operating daily. I'm surprised.
ReplyDeleteCould some other routes in ex-Yu work for them from Thessaloniki as well?
ReplyDeletePerhaps Podgorica could work. JU flies from BEG and FR from Zagreb. Skopje is too close.
DeleteAnd don't forget there are also Kraljevo- Thessaloniki flights :D
DeleteAnd once again Ljubljana missing. The city who has 3 daily charter flights in peak season to Greece can't even introduce a weekly flight... What is doing on
ReplyDeleteAnd don't forget that Fraport basically runs every airport in Greece other than ATH. I am surprised they didn't lobby for HER-LJU or RHO-LJU.
DeleteThey have to feed LH cartel in FRA.
DeleteThey should retry Ljubljana now that Adria is no longer around.
DeleteSlovenes travel to Greece a lot, only reason Aegean didn't do well in Ljubljana was perhaps high prices.
DeleteI don't understand either. And I remember articles here that Athens is one of the top unserved routes from LJU at the moment.
DeleteAlmost 10.000 people travelled between LJU and ATH in 2019. Not so small number. But Fraport fanboys will tell you that there is zero demand and the only route that works from LJU is FRA.
DeleteHow come Podgorica works and Ljubljana does not for Aegean? I just don't get it. I flew last summer to Lefkada from LJU and just my flight was completely full. I am confident that Athens could work easily with 2-3 flights per week.
DeleteBecause Slovenes will switch to flying from ZAG if the ticket is €1 cheaper. That is why Aegean failed in LJU. No one wants to book tickets with Aegean because they all go on charter flights to the sea.
Delete@10,17
DeleteTGD is possible on an ATR, LJU isn't.
I also guess it isn't easy launching ATH-LJU either with JU offering practically double daily flights via BEG with quick connections, which A3 codeshares.
I would never opt for LJU-BEG-ATH, only because the first sector is on the old JU ATR, which hopefully will be substituted soon. I doubt JU gets many transfers from LJU to ATH.
DeleteJU is the top carrier between LJU and Greece!
DeleteLast year there was an article here that listed the top destinations from Ljubljana for Air Serbia transfer passengers. In 2019 Athens was number 1. In 2020 it was third.
DeleteWhat if JU offered that flight with either newer ATR or A319?
DeleteDon't underestimate Podgorica. Pre pandemic payload is quite good, that's why A3 is coming back there.
Delete@sloavio
DeleteGood for you. However the fact is that thousands of others do opt for it. As mentioned in the comment above, JU is the largest transfer airline not only in LJU but in ZAG as well for ATH. Old ATR's will be out by the years end. You've obviously missed out on a couple of articles here.
Nope, none of the articles is missed out, I know they are getting new ones, just hope it will be deployed on the route to LJU ASAP. Not even a single person i know, flew via BEG to ATH, and I know many people who travel often and have traveled to Greece. Most of them used VCE. Most means everyone in this case.
Delete@sloavio
DeleteQuick google search for statistics shows that in 2019, last 'normal' year of ops, JU carried 72.498 pax between BEG and LJU, out of which 16.247 transfers, 4.837 to ATH in particular. ATH was the most popular transfer destination out of LJU for JU. In 2020 this went down to 1.670 pax.
my friend, an IATA agent told me, there is explosion of interest in Slovenia for flying. He is sure, Greece flights would be sold out in matter of hours. Like the charters were last autoumn. People are hungry of travel, and nobody seems to notice that....
DeleteSloavio, those who traveled all the way to VCE are not going to fly on JU even if it sends the A330 to LJU. They are after the cheapest fare and those are usually not the connecting flights, JU or not JU.
DeleteWelcome back :)
ReplyDeleteCome to Ljubljana!!!
ReplyDeleteSarajevo too please
DeleteI'm surprised Sarajevo didn't work out. Did they fly these with Q400s or Airbuses?
DeleteI think Aegean will further boost BEG this summer, they did the same thing last year. They started off in a rather conservative manner and then ended up boosting frequencies. I noticed yesterday that in April they revised their schedule and if I remember correctly 2/4 weekly flights leave BEG at 19.20. This is a very good schedule for transfers.
ReplyDeleteWith Greece having suspended tests for vaccinated passengers, I expect demand to start picking up.
I agree. I believe they are being cautious and will eventually increase frequencies. I wonder which destinations people use them to transfer to most. I was surprise to see in that recent article that they were used quite a lot to Amman.
DeleteMy guess is that most are going to the Greek islands. I think they have quite a few passengers from Cyprus. Each time I fly we are between 5 and 10 passengers to connect in ATH to BEG/LCA.
DeleteMakes sense
DeleteWhy no Sarajevo?!
ReplyDeleteAs I remember flights were quite packed so I don't know why they stopped. And they stopped it before corona.
DeleteThey suspended it a few weeks before lockdowns.
DeleteI don't get Sarajevo termination especially since they planned to increase frequencies from 2 to 4 in summer 2020.
DeleteIf they planned to double frequencies obviously it was working but Corona and travel bans changed all that.
DeleteYields were probably a problem with SJJ
DeleteWizz Air can now start it if there is sufficient demand.
DeleteOr sufficient subsidies
DeleteGood to see they are operating more and more neos to the region.
ReplyDeleteMontenegro keeps winning!
ReplyDeleteTheir Skopje flights seem to be doing quite well. It was the first route they resumed in ex-Yu during covid.
ReplyDeleteAt 2 per week with an ATR? Does not sound like it's doing great. If it was they would at least be flying a few extra frequencies.
DeleteTheir fares to Skopje are extremely expensive for some reason only known to them. I mean the route's costs on a Dash and soon on the ATR can't be that high to warrant such high fares.
DeleteSKP-ATH is usually more of a political route. I mean 2 weekly ATR service is like what? 150 passengers weekly in both directions?
DeleteThey should try seasonal flights to Banja Luka.
ReplyDeleteIt would make sense since JU operated BNX ATH
DeleteI believe BNX-ATH were charters?
DeleteNot sure but it seems that demand for Zagreb is present although Ryanair covered Thessaloniki and Corfu?
ReplyDeleteOne would expect that Zagreb should sustain year round flights to Athens, not just between June and October.
DeleteTime for FR to step in on ZAG-ATH route. They would blow away both OU and A3.
DeleteNo discount for this route so I don't think it will happen from Zagreb. But they can make ZAD-ATH work.
DeleteOU should finally make ZAG-ATH nonstop, at least one weekly and keep the others via DBV.
DeleteI think there is not enough market for ATH ZAG. There is a reason why A3 pushed it to June and even now cheapest fares are available meaning sales are bad.
DeleteExcellent news. Well done Aegean!
ReplyDeleteMaybe in 2023 they could try Athens-Pula seasonal?
ReplyDeleteSo 4 weekly flights with A321 between Belgrade and Heraklion (Aegean and Wizz) plus who knows how many Air Serbia charters. Not bad at all.
ReplyDeleteCould Air Serbia consider flying scheduled flights to the Greek islands? Or there is no point?
DeleteI don't see the need for it. Tour operators buy out their planes on these routes.
DeleteThat's why JU is focusing on Spain and PMI so that they don't get crushed there like they were crushed in Rhodes and Crete.
DeleteCrushed? They operate numerous charters and probably make more on both routes than Wizz Air.
DeleteJU had charters to Rhodes last year but they had no flights to HER, they operated just a few flights to Chania.
DeleteIt's a fact, Air Serbia has lost the battle for Heraklion.
Without meaning to offend anyone, who exactly flies between Thessaloniki and Dubrovnik? Is this for Greeks? Somehow I don't see many Greeks, especially from that area flying off to Dubrovnik to have a holiday. Or is it for transfers? I don't get it.
ReplyDeleteBtw I'm genuinely interested, not trying to diminish or say that the route won't work.
DeleteAmericans and other hop-on hop-off tourists
DeleteI had the same question in my head. I hardly believe this route will work. Thessaloniki is super nice, great vibes, the city is full of life due to huge student population, but people dont see it as a city break destination (like Barcelona), so I guess it is not gonna be easy for FR. I just checked the FR prices from ZAG to SKG. Even if you want to fly this week and come back on sunday, the rt ticket is less than 20€, on the other side ticket prices from ZAG to Rome or Malaga with FR are extremely expensive.
DeleteCroatia-Greece market was always difficult. I am sure FR does ok right now because of Slovenes who are buying tickets.
DeleteJust for information to people interested : During the times of fear and poverty behind the iron curtain, unlike today when we are all happy and rich, and free, and so well connected by air, JAT operated DAILY DBV-ATH on B727. Flight leaving DBV late evening and back from ATH early morning.
DeleteBravo Jugoslavija!
DeleteAnd in modern times just before covid JU had double daily BEG-ATH and double daily BEG-SKG. Much more than during Yugo times.
Delete^ Well it is catastrophic of you to think 30 years later there should be less flights. At the same time you could travel to the US visa free 30 years ago. Now you can't and you have two flights per week to one destination in the US.
DeleteTwo flights per week during the slowest period of the year. BEG-JFK is actually better than in Yugoslav times because now there are no more stops on the way there. I think JAT had 5 weekly flights but most went via another city like ZAG or LJU.
DeleteYou could fly to Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, but ok. It's good you are happy with the same frequency 30 years later.
DeleteSame frequency?
Delete3 weekly BEG-ZAG-JFK
1 weekly BEG-LJU-JFK
1 weekly BEG-DBV-JFK
2 weekly BEG-JFK
1 weekly BEG-ZAG-CLE-DTW
1 weekly BEG-LJU-CLE-DTW
1 weekly BEG-DBV-ORD
2 weekly BEG-ZAG-ORD
2 weekly BEG-ORD-LAX
1 weekly BEG-DXB-CCU-PEK
1 weekly BEG-DXB-BKK
1 weekly BEG-DXB-KUL-SIN
2 weekly BEG-DXB-SIN-MEL-SYD
Above listed are JAT scheduled long haul services operated in 1988 and 1989 with the fleet of five DC-10 's and one L1011-500 leased from Alia Royal Jordanian. And I will not claim what we have together is better or worse. I will let people who read make their own conclusions.
Just noticed omitted 3 weekly BEG-ZAG-YMX-YYZ
DeleteAnd btw one stop flights within the country North America were normal for those times - AZ for example operated Rome - Milano - JFK, LH Munich - Dusseldorf - JFK, SR Zurich - Geneve - JFK...
DeleteWhen looking at JFK what JU offers today is better for BEG than what it did back then.
DeleteSame with Greece. For Serbia JU today offers much more than Yugo-JU did.
Cool. Enjoy
Delete16 long haul destinations compared to 1 plus 2 announced
Delete5 plus 1 widebody planes compared to 1 plus 1 announced
22 weekly long haul frequencies compared to 2-6
Fleet of 36 planes, compared to less than 20
5 million passengers compared to 2 million
30 years later, when all companies doubled or tripled everything
Once again, not writing better or worse, just listing facts
@pozdrav iz Rijeke
DeleteCorrect me if I am wrong, JAT also had an MD11 order plus plans to launch new destinations such as CCS, NRT, GRU.
You are not wrong. Six MD-11's were on order. With 3 DC-10's to remain in fleet, which were sold and leased-back, for initial investment on MD-11's. Ansd you are right about new destinations as well. Seoul, Caracas, and Mumbai were literally days before starting. After 13 years after application was filed, JU was about to get traffic rights for Tokyo. Third Australia was planned, with one comtinuing via DXB-SIN (cargo), and two via Colombo, so one stop only. Johannesburg was already started during the last days, fourthnightly, with plan to be chaged to Nairobi-Johannesburg twice weekly. Manila was in tha last phase of negotiations, continuation of BKK, for huge amount of Medjugorja pilgrims. South America and Lagos-Accra were planned for the third round of netwoek increase, and the second one was to include Washington, Miami, Houston, Vancouver and San Francisco, where offices were already opened
DeleteGreat to see them resuming more and more flights. They barely flew anywhere last summer in ex-Yu.
ReplyDeleteLet's just hope all of this will stick come summer.
ReplyDeleteHow come there is no codeshare between Croatia Airlines and Aegean? They are both Star alliance members. Makes no sense.
ReplyDeleteIt's odd especially considering they codeshare with JU on their Croatia flights.
DeleteCroatia Airlines is Star Alliance member only in part in which membership is paid. In real life, they are not real member, but pathetic servant with only purpose to provide feed to LH. That"s why there is no codeshare with Aegean, or DBV to the US on United, or many others, or longer and more profitable routes of its own
DeleteThey need to come to Sarajevo back , i remember that ATH-SJJ was a pretty successful route ( Aegean was planning to increase flights too ) i have no idea why they didn't resume SJJ this year .. Maybe 2023 could be the year for Sarajevo , Ljubljana and Split having Aegean back !
ReplyDeleteAegean will operate Athens - Podgorica and Athens - Dubrovnik routes year-round , check their website ! Although i dont understand why they want to operate ATH-DBV year-round and not ZAG
ReplyDeleteDubrovnik is not year round. It is operating till first week of January, the same as it was before pandemic. Podgorica was year round before pandemic too.
DeleteDubrovnik is operating until first week of January and then resumes on March that means that it can be called as a year-round route ( year-round with a pause in February and January )
DeletePodgorica tho was never year-round as far as a i remember.
Year round is when it is operated throughout the year every single month. If it is not flying all of January, February and March, it is not year round.
DeleteI agree with both of you but i believe it not summer seasonal if the route is operating in December and January .
DeleteA3 seem to be getting quite aggressive in BEG this summer. I see they even restored their 9 weekly SOF service. Wonder if BEG will become at least daily.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if BEG will be daily because they are adding RHO and HER and many used to connect in Athens to these destinations. I think in the end it will be 5 weekly.
DeleteWhy not Pristina ��
ReplyDelete